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QR codes are also known as “Quick Response” codes. It is a 2D matrix type of bar code. The QR code was originally invented by a subsidiary of Toyota to manage automobile parts. The QR code is now public domain and you have probably seen them a number of places, on product packaging, bill boards, in magazine ads, and on-line. The most common use for them now days is to encode URLs, and addresses. They are meant to be quickly scanned and read by the camera in your cell phone. If you have an Android, or an Iphone you have a built-in bar-code scanner that can process the URL stored in these QR codes.

The image below is a QR code that encodes the URL of this website. If you scan it with the camera in your smart-phone, it should recognize the encoded URL https://nfolamp.wordpress.com and offer you the option of opening your browser to take you there.

You can create your own QR code using the Google charts tool. Google charts are an API which allow you dynamically generate charts using a URL and embed them into your web pages. Use the Google chart URL shown above. The parameter cht=qr, indicates that this is to be a QR code. The parameter chs=100×100 is the size. Change it if you want to change the size. Use the chl= parameter to indicate the URL that you want to encode.

Google charts is a very powerful tool. Although my example demonstrated only how to create a QR code chart, the number of different types of charts you can create using the Google API is very impressive. I encourage you to check out the Google charts playground tool and experiment with creating different types of charts.